Abstract
This chapter gives an overview of progress made in understanding fibre fundamentals and their subsequent development into targeted application areas. It describes the key roles that textiles play in maintaining health and hygiene in everyday life. In in vivo application, it differentiates between temporary and permanent implantable materials and their underlying functional requirements. It also elucidates the role grafts, sutures and tissue engineering play in repairing malfunctioning organs and damaged surface/subsurface layers. It concludes by highlighting the roles that new technologies, including e-textiles, will increasingly play in recording health statistics, wellbeing standards and in actively prompting action long before an alignment is due.